Ensete perrieri
{{Short description|Rare species of banana}}
{{Speciesbox
| status = CR
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = {{Cite web
| url = https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/98249345/98249347
| title = Ensete perrieri (Madagascar Banana)
| last1 = Allen
| first1 = R.
| editor-last1 = Andriambololonera
| editor-first1 = S.
| year = 2018
| orig-date = 23 June 2017
| department =
| website =
| series =
| publisher = IUCN
| others = Ralimanana, H., Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
| language = en
| doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T98249345A98249347.en
| access-date = 30 December 2024
}}
| genus = Ensete
| species = perrieri
| authority = (Claverie) Cheesman
}}
Ensete perrieri, or the Madagascar banana, is a species of banana exclusively found in western Madagascar. The Madagascar banana is listed as critically endangered because of deforestation and climate change. Some botanists believe that the Madagascar banana is a potential source of resistance to Panama disease, which wiped out the Gros Michel banana, and threatens the Cavendish banana, which is the main banana of international commerce.{{cite news |date=5 July 2018 |title=Yes! We have no bananas: Why the song may come true again |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44712034 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225021534/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44712034 |archive-date=25 December 2024 |access-date=11 December 2024 |website=BBC |publisher=Helen Briggs}}{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Richard |last2=Clarkson |first2=James J |last3=Ralimanana |first3=Hélène |date=6 July 2018 |title=The critically endangered Madagascar Banana |url=https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/madagascan-banana |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241220045307/https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/madagascan-banana |archive-date=20 December 2024 |access-date=11 December 2024 |website= |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |quote=Only five mature individuals of E. perrieri have been previously identified in the whole of Madagascar, and a recent survey has suggested that now only three of these may be left (Analavelona, Ampefy and Maintirano areas).}}
Description
The Madagascar banana tree is a herbaceous tree. It loses all of its leaves in the dry season with only a pseudostem of leaf-sheaths remaining.{{Cite book |last1=Jolly |first1=Alison |author-link=Alison Jolly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lR0lBQAAQBAJ&dq=Ensete+perrieri+-ventricosum&pg=PA27 |title=Key Environments: Madagascar |last2=Oberlé |first2=Philippe |last3=Albignac |first3=Roland |date=2016-01-22 |publisher=Pergamon Press, IUCN |isbn=978-1-4832-8595-5 |edition=1st |location=Oxford |page=42 |language=en |oclc=756437768 |ol=39908881M |orig-year=1984 |via=Plants of the World Online}}
A typical Madagascar banana tree is {{convert|5|to|6|m}} high, with a trunk swollen at the base into a thick tuber {{cvt|2.5|m}} in circumference. The roots are white, cylindrical and thick. The stem is surrounded by persistent leaf sheaths and thus takes on the appearance of a large trunk swollen at its base. It measures, on average, {{cvt|2|m}} in circumference at the collar, {{cvt|2.5|m}} a little higher (at a distance of {{convert|50|cm}}), only {{cvt|0.7|m}} at the level of the lower leaves.{{Cite book |last= |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/161596#page/73/mode/1up |title=Annales du Muśee colonial de Marseille |last2= |first2= |publisher=Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Sciences |year=1909 |volume=ser.2:v.7 |location= |pages=74–86 |language=fr |oclc=731007973}}
Uses
Because of its large seeds, it is not palatable to eat. However, it may be possible to breed edible bananas with it. A traditional Malagasy use of the banana in southwest Madagascar is to grind the stems to a powder as a treatment for stomach-ache.{{Cite journal |last1=Randrianarivony |first1=Tabita N. |last2=Andriamihajarivo |first2=Tefy H. |last3=Ramarosandratana |first3=Aro V. |last4=Rakotoarivony |first4=Fortunat |last5=Jeannoda |first5=Vololoniaina H. |last6=Kuhlman |first6=Alyse |last7=Randrianasolo |first7=Armand |last8=Bussmann |first8=Rainer |display-authors=1 |date=2016-12-23 |title=Value of useful goods and ecosystem services from Agnalavelo sacred forest and their relationships with forest conservation |url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/mcd/article/view/149654 |journal=Madagascar Conservation & Development |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |page=47 |doi=10.4314/mcd.v11i2.1 |issn=1662-2510}}
Taxonomy
A specimen was collected in Betsiboka in 1905 by a French botanist named Pierre Claverie, and is kept in a herbarium in the National Museum of Natural History, France.{{Cite web |title=Occurrence Detail 4061008915 |url=https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/4061008915 |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=Global Biodiversity Information Facility |language=en}} The Madagascar banana is named after a French botanist, Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrier de la Bâthie, and was originally classified in the genus Musa,{{Cite web |title=Musa perrieri Bonnier |url=https://www.gbif.org/species/8412469 |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=www.gbif.org |language=en}} but was later reclassified as Ensete by Ernest Entwistle Cheesman.{{Cite journal |last=Cheesman |first=E. E. |date=1947 |title=Classification of the Bananas: The Genus Ensete Horan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4109206 |journal=Kew Bulletin |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=97–106 |doi=10.2307/4109206 |jstor=4109206 |bibcode=1947KewBu...2...97C |issn=0075-5974|url-access=subscription }} The Madagascar banana is a relative of the Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum).
Habitat and cultivation
Madagascar bananas are native to the dry tropical forests of western Madagascar,{{Cite web |title=Ensete perrieri (Claverie) Cheesman {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:584802-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241215033839/https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:584802-1 |archive-date=15 December 2024 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |language=en}} and in 2018, it was thought by botanists at Kew Gardens that there were only three known mature Madagascar banana trees left, but seedlings have been seen. The Madagascar banana has a genetic trait that allows it to be resistant to diseases. Madagascar bananas can be found within the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve.
See also
References
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